The SEC's strongman policy on crowd control got us thinking: How many other conferences penalize their members for fans storming the court?
The answer is only one, and that's after the third offense.

The SEC's penalties are pretty direct: $5,000 for the first offense; $25,000 for the second offense; $50,000 for the third offense.

The SEC adopted the policy a few years ago after goalposts came down on fans during a game, and the Florida-Georgia incident, in which fans practically swallowed up the Gators' Matt Walsh.

So far, the SEC has fined Tennessee $5,000 for Saturday's court storming against Florida, South Carolina for storming after beating Kentucky last season and Vanderbilt for storming after beating Wichita State in the NIT.

In a quick survey of the other 30 conferences, 21 responded, including the other major conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10, as well as C-USA, MWC, WAC and A-10), and the only other conference that has a fine policy is the Big Ten.

The Big Ten policy states the first offense is a private notification to the institution; the second offense is a public acknowledgement of an institutional problem and the third, at the discretion of the commissioner, is a fine of up to $10,000.

Some of the conferences said they tell their schools they shouldn't allow fans to storm the court, but others simply don't have a policy in place.

The best line came from associate commissioner Matt Bourque from the America East: "The America East has no policy. If any of our teams beat Florida, we'd pay the fans to storm the court."

2/6/2006 2:27:05 PM

i love plagiarism

2/6/2006 2:30:15 PM

i hate the stupid storm the field/court rules. Its a part of college sports. Theres always some girl in the front row that gets knocked down and makes a fuss and causes these stupid rules. Put disclaimers on the back of tickets, and carry on, I say.

2/6/2006 2:31:26 PM

I hope the acc does not agree to this

2/6/2006 2:31:43 PM

DID YOU EVEN READ THE SHIT YOU POSTED???

2/6/2006 2:32:37 PM

ALot of schools we be fined if the acc does put this bs in effect

2/6/2006 2:33:01 PM

yeah , in 2008 they are going to review this policy again and see what they think about it
I didntpost all of it

2/6/2006 2:34:37 PM

I think they should make a distinction between football and basketball. Basketball rushing is obviously a lot less dangerous.

Of course isnt the ACC putting the folding goalposts in all stadiums now?

2/6/2006 2:41:12 PM